Conventionally, robots with an operable operation arm have been proposed. Normally, a safety fence is provided in the circumference of the operation arm to divide an operating range of the operation arm from an operating range of a person. However, for example, the person may enter inside the safety fence to supply objects to be processed.
In recent years, cases where both the operation arm and the person work together within a space where there is no partition have been increased. In such a robot, certain safety measures are taken, for example, to avoid risks of interference of the robot with the person when the person enters into the operating range of the operation arm. For example, JP4,219,870B2 discloses a man-machine operation system, which includes a transmitter attached to a person, a receiver attached to a machine corresponding to the transmitter, and a position detector for detecting the position of the person with respect to the position of the machine based on an output signal of the receiver.
In the man-machine operation system disclosed in JP4,219,870B2, the spatial relationship of the person with respect to the machine is detected by the position detector, and the operating range of the person is set based on the spatial relationship.
Alternatively, the safety measures for the person (operator) may include the person wearing protectors for protecting body parts of the person. Such protectors are often to protect the body parts of the person, such as a helmet for protecting the person's head and a pair of goggles for protecting the person's eyes, and various types of protector have been proposed.